SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 25, 2008

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Google Launches Yahoo-Google Facts Site
  Google has launched a new informational site designed to tell its story about why there’s no need to fear an ad partnership between it and Yahoo. Within the site, you’ll lots of information about the deal except for one key fact: when exactly does it start? The launch of…
• How To Walk A Mile In A Search Engine’s Shoes
  Small business owners are often curious, and sometimes desperate, to understand why their web sites are doing well — or doing poorly — when it comes to search engine visibility. Online forums and message boards are filled with questions like “Why is my competitor outranking me?”, “Why doesn’t my…
• Google Moderator (AKA Dory) Launches
  Last night Google released Google Moderator, a tool to organize “tech talks” or question and answer sessions. It is a free service that Google used internally, but now made public. Matt Cutts said Google calls this application Dory “after the fish who asked questions all the time in Finding Nemo).”…
• New Virtual Earth Features, APIs & 3D Tools
  Microsoft has announced three new enhancements to their mapping solutions with Virtual Earth. The first are new features in Live Search Maps. The second is a new Virtual Earth Web Service and Virtual Earth Map Control 6.2. The third is a new version of Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D and 3DVia….
• Video Search Hacks For Checking Competitors
  There are plenty of analytics tools available to help you measure traffic to your collection of videos. These range from the straightforward stats supplied by YouTube Insight to the complex dashboards available from TubeMogul. One area where we’ve not seen much progress is competitor analysis. In conventional search marketing,…
• SMX East: Looking At Search & The US Presidential Campaign
  Our SMX East search marketing conference is coming up fast — Oct. 6-8 in New York — and I’m going to be highlighting some sessions we’re having in the run-up to the event. First up is a late breaking entry: Search & The US Presidential Campaign. By several accounts,…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Contacts, Google Operating System
• Google Reader Keyboard Shortcuts Changed Without Warning?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Iron: Chrome for privacy fanatics, Download Squad
• New Google Talk Help Forum, Google Talkabout

Business Issues

• Food Fight: Googlers’ free-food privileges slashed, Valleywag
• Google Is Steaming Into an Antitrust Swamp, Portfolio.com
• Consumer group asks Senator to intervene in Google-Yahoo deal, News.com
• Facebook Recruits Street Troops To Grow in Germany, TechCrunch
• Google TV Ads Platform Adds Bloomberg TV to U.S. Inventory, Google
• Is Google Spreading Itself Too Thin?, O’Reilly Radar
• Yahoo Buys Site for Nebraska Data Center, Data Center Knowledge

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Microformat Support on MapQuest Local, MapQuest Blog

Link Building

• A Tale of Two Links, Search Engine Watch
• Cover Your Link Ass et, The Link Spiel

Paid Search & Contextual

• Common issues that lead to SOAP faults (Part II), AdWords API Blog
• Microsoft Bidding on AOL Brand Name in Google?, Screenwerk
• Google’s Search Query Report Groups Outliers, But Should It?, Search Engine Roundtable
• New Features Coming To Microsoft adCenter Desktop Beta, Search Engine Roundtable
• Tarnishing a Competitors Brand with Paid Search, PPC Discussions

Searching

• 3 Ways to Visualize Your Search History With FireFox, Search Engine Journal

SEM Industry

• Google Guidelines Spy vs Google Webmaster Central Spy, SEOish
• Search Engine Strategies Builds Up Programming Team, Search Engine Watch Blog
• SEO 101: Interview with MSN Live’s Jeremiah Andrick, Cshel

SEO & SEM

• Free and Low Cost Tools to Get the Job Done, Search Engine Guide
• Shoemoney Tools : PPC Tools, Search Engine Journal
• Web 2.0 Expo: SEO for Web Development Presentation, Live Search Webmaster Center Blog
• Shoemoney Tools - Get 80% Off Your First Month, ProBlogger

Social Media

• A new look for orkut emails, Orkut Blog
• Interview with Gary Koelling from Best Buy on Social Media, Online Marketing Blog
• Using Twitter as an Education Tool, Search Engine Watch

Video, Music & Image Search

• Cool New Tools For YouTube, Inquisitr
• Microsoft Granted Patent on Vision-Based Document Segmentation (VIPS), SEO By The Sea
• Tagging Improvements, Google Photos Blog

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Building Search Engine Friendly Sites: Common Questions
• 10 Questions You Should be Asking Your Client But Aren’t
• Nine lessons in search engine optimization
• SEO Is Not a Last-Ditch Effort
• Free and Low Cost Tools to Get the SEO/SEM Job Done
• StumbleUpon Marketing - White, Grey & Black Hat Tests